Auto Loan Rates Hold Steady;
Used Auto at 6.559%

Auto loan rates held steady this week. New auto loan rates edged up 0.012 points to 5.702% APR, and used auto rates edged up an identical 0.012 points to 6.559%. General auto rates were essentially flat at 6.112%. With new and used moving in lockstep, the new-to-used spread held unchanged at 0.857 points after last week’s sharp widening.

📊 Three-segment auto loan coverage tracked weekly by MonitorBankRates.com.

NATIONAL — National auto loan rates held steady for the week ending May 25, 2026, with all three segments moving fractionally. New auto loan rates edged up 0.012 points to 5.702% APR. Used auto loan rates edged up an identical 0.012 points to 6.559%. General auto loan rates were essentially flat, slipping 0.003 points to 6.112%. The overall auto loan benchmark slipped 0.006 points to 6.222% — a fractional move that leaves the market essentially where it stood a week ago.

Used auto loan rates edged up 0.012 points to 6.559%, a fractional move that follows last week’s sharp 0.071-point jump. The deceleration is notable: after rising 0.197 points over the prior two weeks, used auto financing essentially paused this week. The move was drawn from 1,093 reporting institutions and 4,243 verified rate quotes. At 6.559%, used auto APRs remain at the high end of this tracking series — the prior weeks’ gains have held rather than reversed, but the upward momentum has clearly slowed.

New auto loan rates edged up 0.012 points to 5.702%, a fractional move that nudges the segment just above the 5.70% mark. New auto pricing has now held in a narrow 5.65%-5.71% band for four consecutive weeks — one of the steadiest stretches in this tracking series. For buyers with strong credit shopping new vehicles, that stability translates into a predictable rate environment: the segment average has not moved more than a few hundredths of a point in any of the past several weeks. New auto financing remains the lowest-cost segment of the auto loan market.

General auto loan rates were essentially flat, slipping 0.003 points to 6.112%. The general auto category aggregates institutions that don’t distinguish between new and used products at the rate-quotation level — making it a useful midpoint indicator of overall auto lending conditions. This week, all three segments moved within a 0.012-point band, and general auto’s near-total stillness is consistent with the broader picture: a market that, after several weeks of segment-level divergence, has settled into a holding pattern.

This week’s holding pattern leaves last week’s structural story intact rather than advancing it. The 0.857-point spread between new auto (5.702%) and used auto (6.559%) is unchanged — still at the wide end of this tracking series, and still above the 0.6-0.8 point range that has historically separated the two segments. Because new and used moved by the same fractional amount this week, the elevated spread neither widened further nor began to close. For buyers, the practical takeaway is unchanged: used vehicle financing continues to carry a meaningfully higher rate than new, and the gap that opened up last week has settled rather than corrected.

For consumers, the wide dispersion within each segment remains the most actionable feature of the auto loan market. Used auto APRs span from 2.49% to 18.00% across reporting institutions, and new auto from 2.00% to 18.00% — meaning the rate a borrower actually receives depends heavily on credit profile and on which lenders they compare. A buyer financing $25,000 on a used vehicle over 60 months at the 6.559% segment average will pay roughly $4,381 in total interest; the same loan at the new auto average of 5.702% would cost about $3,790 — a difference of nearly $600 that reflects the persistent new-to-used gap. For active rate comparison, see best auto loan rates. Track how the segments evolve on the auto loan rate trends page.